Adventure in Oswego!

This last Saturday, my wife, Michele, and I took a part of one of the trips in my Lonely Planet Guidebooks and went to Oswego, NY. The drive was nice. The road is a two lane road and you don’t want to be in a hurry, but if you are enjoying an adventure, then hurry should not be one of your main priorities; you miss too much.

[slickr-flickr tag="oswego"]

One of the Reasons that I wanted to go there. is that the book listed a place called Rudy’s Lakeside Drivethru. It was touted to be a fifties style place with some of the best seafood in the area.

Here is my biggest complaint about Lonely Planet trips. They don’t always give you great directions to places. If I had not seen a sign telling me that Rudy’s was the next left, I would have missed it! Since I did see the sign, we turned left and after about a mile, practically drove right into the place. It was about one in the afternoon and the place was absolutely packed! We decided to see some of the other sites and come back.

We did find a great place to look out at the lighthouse, but decided not to walk out on the breakwater to get a closer look. The sun was bright, but the wind off the lake was cold! The temp was only about sixty-five.

We drove down the lakefront and found something not even in the book, but should be. Fort Oswego, is a fort originally built in the seventeen hundreds. It was closed for the season, it was only April, so we didn’t get to go inside, but we did walk around it and found a plaque telling us about the fort. This place had more turnover than a Holiday inn. Built be the British, taken over by the Americans, recaptured by the British. I don’t even remember how many times it switched hands, mostly between the Americans and the British with a short stay by the French. They should have installed a revolving door!

From there, we went down town and stopped to walk along the river front. Many of the buildings are quite old and the architecture was interesting on some of them. We wanted to see a museum that the guide book listed, but it wasn’t exactly where the book said and we finally found it on a city map, but by then, we had walked a couple of miles or more and decided it was time to try Rudy’s again.

Back at Rudy’s, the place was still pretty busy and this was about three thirty. We were hungry so decided to brave the crowd and see if we could get something to eat. The sign on the door said that we would not be able to use our debit card, but that there was an ATM next door. We went over and proceeded to get some cash, but the light was so dim on the ATM, we had a hard time reading the instructions. It only took us about fifteen minutes to take out twenty dollars!

Inside Rudy’s, there were probably about forty to sixty people standing at the counter to order. The place has maybe ten tables inside and the rest of the place is one long counter where you order.

We got the gold and blue plates which were scallops and haddock and scallops respectively. We got fries and a choice of salad with the meal. While the girl who took our order was getting our napkins and plastic wear, I asked her if it ever slowed down. She said I was looking at the down time. She said on Friday and Saturday nights, during dinner hours, the place is so crowded that you can hardly get in the door and people are waiting outside to get in and order! This place is a gold mine. I wish I owned it!

We took our dinners outside and sat by the lake. It was a little chilly, but not really too bad. At least the sun was shining. I have to tell you that this was one of the best seafood meals I have had. I don’t know what they do to it, it was just breaded and deep fried, but it was mouth watering. My wife loved hers too, but like my Haddock and stole most of it. That’s OK, she traded me some scallops ad I love scallops!

The drive home was nice except that after all that walking and then eating a wonderful meal, I was tempted to pull over and take a nap. As soon as we got home I did that very thing.

If you are up near Oswego, if nothing else, stop by Rudy’s it is well worth it. As I have said before, check out what you have around you. You might find your own Rudy’s right in your own backyard!